Tenant Can't Keep Paying Reduced Rent After Lease Modification Agreement Expires

What Happened: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a landlord agreed to reduce a retail tenant’s rent from $7,147 to $3,500. Signed in November 2020, the agreement was retroactive to May 2020 to March 2021, at which time rent would revert back to the original amount. However, the tenant continued to pay the reduced rent from April 1, 2021, through March 1, 2022. The landlord sent the tenant a notice of default after each monthly $3,500 check received; and when the tenant stopped paying rent entirely, it sought eviction for nonpayment. Meanwhile, the tenant remained in possession of the property.

Ruling: The Connecticut court granted the landlord summary eviction—that is, eviction without a trial.    

Reasoning: The tenant argued that the terms of the modification agreement remained in effect after April 1, 2021, because the landlord accepted each $3,500 payment made after that date. Horsefeathers, said the court, noting that the landlord sent the tenant a notice of default after each reduced payment making it clear that it didn’t accept the $3,500 as payment in full. The “overwhelming evidence demonstrates that there was no agreement to accept the reduced rental payment as payment in full after the modification agreement expired.” The court also rejected all of the tenant’s special defenses, including equitable forfeiture and bad faith and breach by the landlord in failing to maintain the premises.   

• Fashion Outlets at Foxwoods, LLC v. BC Fox, LLC, 2023 Conn. Super. LEXIS 2046, 2023 WL 5286996